Dr. Michael Pritchett, Dr. Charles Schirmer, and Jessica Broady of FirstHealth Pinehurst, NC, join Stephanie Pliha of Intuitive to discuss their clinical program and how the addition of Ion has given their practice a clinical advantage.
Good afternoon. This is Stephanie pleo with intuitive surgical coming live from the top executive summit in san Diego on this saturday august 7th. I would like to use this time for our august in my experience podcast and webinar with our beloved Dr Michael Pritchett and team. We also have Jessica brody, his artie as well as the pathologist, Dr Shermer. And we're here just at one talk about and reflect on the meeting that we just participated in for the last day and a half. But also just talk about questions that are burning on everyone's mind about how they got their programs. So good. So let's start with the top recap on the top summit lessons learned and I can just go around the panel. What was the most meaningful or biggest lesson you learned in the last day and a half for me, anyone? Okay. Um what did I learn? Uh I had a good experience uh talking with the other pathologists about how they handled the same problems that we have. It turns out that one of the sections sessions I was that there were five pathologists, we all handle things differently. Absolutely differently. In fact, you know, some of us didn't do the things that the others did. I think the exchange was very good. You know, the technical part, the exchange of how we handle things technically. And also how we staffed, how we staff the uh procedures. What the challenges were there. What the challenges are when you have different pathologists with different levels of experience or comfort, which all of us seem to have each different site. Um so I don't know whether we solved a bunch of those problems, but it's nice to know that we're all sharing the same problems uh and got some ideas about how other people are doing things. So I'm I'm hoping to take those back and incorporate them into our practice. Perfect. See what happens. The interesting thing is I was told by some of your peers that you're not used to you and your peer group are not used to these types of conferences. And so I know it was really putting you guys out there by having you come to this conference, but I would just love to know, you know, are you planning on coming to a conference like this again, was this a one and done, you know, I'm getting towards the end of my career. It was valuable. I thought the discussions I had with the other pulmonologist, other surgeons, the technical folks from on it was it was very valuable. In fact, I think one of the things that I put on my evaluation was I'd like to have more of that interaction. I'd like to have a session about with from an engineer or something. You know, how did we develop this? What are we doing? How does it work? Because I mean it's it's a marvelous and kind of, you know, jaw dropping technology and I'd like to know how do we get it and and how does it work and what are they doing to make it to make it so revolutionary. So yeah, I think that was one of the really valuable parts of it. To me it's a nice piece of equipment. It sits in the corner of our our but for it to have its own story would be nice as well. That is great feedback. We were thrilled to have the pathologist group here. It was a new audience for us and it's exciting to have you guys here and have that insight in various parts of our program. I think the pathologist around it, it's a little bit different role than we've had in a lot of of other situations, making decisions with less than perfect information. Not all the things that we'd like to have, not necessarily in the environment that we're used to working. Uh and so it's a little different, but if we have a team that understands the limitations, it makes it challenging. It makes it fun. Uh you know, you can normally, pathology is a minus game. You start with 100%. Anything you do wrong is off of that. But in this sense, it's almost a plus game that anything you can add to the procedure. Anything you can add to the process is something that's better than would have been without you. So we kind of, once you get your head around that, that you're going to be less than perfect what you, what you normally expect, then it can be tons of fun and in our practice has turned out to be one of the most fun things we do. We do a lot of inter operative kind of consultations and stuff. But this is something we really kind of look forward to. I still like you might have fun doing anything. All right. It's not it's not fun. You're not doing it right, that's all I've been saying. Well let's move on to Jessica. So what was your big aha moment here or lessons learned from our respiratory therapy perspective? Honestly, um found out how privileged we were um to have multiple therapists in the room to have Cytotec and pathology and even something as simple as the sale processing team. Um A lot of, I found out a lot of therapists and indo tex and um other people that are not therapists have to clean their scopes um are responsible for making slides and it's just a privilege just have a team that um that's put together that we can um have fast turnover times and Able to do six and 7 Bronchus copies in one day. Perfect. Well, I know you're no stranger to these types of conferences and I know you were a big part of this conference but were there any lessons learned or anything that were ah ha for you or things that you might take back to the program in general from this event, I was just excited to see what an amazing turnout you had in such a diverse group of people and seeing it's really encouraging to see that there's so many people that have the same goals that we do and have the same passion and the same drive that we do and I think what was eye opening is to see how many people showed up to this and are doing well with this and how many people have ion and are doing fantastic with it across the board, whether they have cone beam or don't where they have on site pathology or don't like everybody is doing so well with eye on. Um and I think that, you know, at future conferences, we want to have more interactions between specialties. Um it was great to have breakout sessions, but it's also nice to have uh sessions where people work together. I know for a fact that some of the, you know, the interventional pulmonologist and thoracic surgeons would love to hear a lecture from the pathologist. Um I would have liked to have heard Jessica's talk with the respiratory therapists and give them feedback from us as far as how integral they are to the team into the procedure. So it's just really refreshing to see uh how many like minded individuals there are out there that we're not alone in terms of our passion and our drive for this. Well, thank you for that, that I personally had a blast at this event. It's nice to just be back in person, be around like you said, like minded people that have a passion towards the same goal. So I do want to turn our attention and our remaining moments to your program. And the reason why I asked your program specifically to be a part of this in my experience series while we're at the summit was to really reflect on what makes your program great. And I know that none of you guys are going to admit that your program is great. But from an outside looking in, I can tell you it is great. So what we need to hold on, all right, and I think what makes our program great is we're kind of right sized, like I was saying earlier that maybe there's always friction, there's always inertia, but less of it. So it's less so of it at our at our place. You know, we have a we have a small hospital, but we like to practice high level medicine and then we have a person that mike who does a good job and really evangelical, how do you say that evangelized evangelizing the technology and the and the goals? Um, so that I think that mike has done a great job doing the promotion, doing, you know, getting into the equipment, getting to buy in from our community and getting to buy in from the respiratory therapist, the pathologist and everybody else when you see success, everybody wants to jump on board. So you have to find a, you know a hero, a champion to get the success rolling. And once you get that moving in the right direction, everybody wants to be part of that. So I think that that's that's what's made our program successful is that you know and mike is supported by his partners and so forth and so on. But you know if if you take a person that has a passion for something and they start they start making things happen and you see the value of it, then of course you want to be involved and why would you want to stand on the sidelines and let somebody else, you know do something better. You want to be part of that team. So that's what I think, you know the situation and the people and the energy and the commitment all comes together to make a good program and I'm proud to be a part of it. Would you say you're a mission driven team? Do you guys have like a universal mission that you're leaning in on as a team? I think so yes. And um it's the cohesiveness of our team that um makes it great for me. Um The communication is outstanding. Um even down to like steel processing, um me, the nurses, the saddle, text, the C. R. N. A. S. We all work as a whole to make our procedure, they successful. It's not just one entity is all of us together and I think because of that that that's what has led to our success on our procedures days about you what makes your team great your program? I agree with all that that's been said and I mean it's definitely a team approach. Um, this is definitely not just me um because we couldn't do what we do without the buying from everybody uh from administration being supportive to our colleagues in medoc and braddock and pathology and restore therapy like everybody being in on this common goal or this common mission to really help our patients, not just to help our patients but to also advance science and medicine at the same time that's just icing on the cake and we're helping patients but we get to do fun and new and innovative stuff and I think it really drives everything that we do. And as dr oh said during the talk like some of this honestly is also luck. Um there's no doubt that there's a ton of hard work that goes on and cohesiveness and lack of egos and people just all working together. But some of this honestly is luck. And I've realized that by practicing in so many different places and I see all the variations that are out there and the issues that people have and some of this is just luck with getting the right people the right personalities the right hospital system that's supportive and. and he gave some examples too. We have won pulmonary group, we have one radical group, one medicine group. So there's not all this infighting between groups and which one are you going to refer to? Just all these people coming together to do the right thing for the patients? Um So it's it's definitely like a recipe and there's many different things that are involved to make it absolutely delicious. Okay. They say that luck is where preparation meets opportunity and I have been in your cases for Ion and I know everyone in the room and I just met Dr Shermer at this meeting, but I've met you in the past and dr Pritchard, I've been in a few of your cases. You are the utmost professional, both of you guys, your preparation for the case, even just the engagement with the patient prior and the follow through and the conversation and everything in between. Um It's not luck, it's preparation and I think you've gotten a fair share of opportunity and you really seize that opportunity. So I want to lean into our audience. So it's um going to serve a greater good. So if I'm watching this right now and I say I want what they have, what does that look like? How do they start? What are a couple of the core competencies that they can initiate in their program or at their hospital to start to mimic what you have. Yeah, I think you have to start by having a champion. Um, and it doesn't matter who it is. You know, we've said the same thing from, you know, from molecular testing, you just need to have a point person, somebody who's passionate about it and a physician champion and some sites that's a medoc and some sites, it's driven by pathology and some sites is driven by a pulmonologist. You just have to have a champion that says, hey look, this is what I want to do. Who's coming with me. You know, it's your jerry Maguire moment, you know, um, and luckily we had everybody come with us. Uh and so it's just really exciting to have that. So I think having a champion coming to meetings like this to get inspired number one, but also to get ideas. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. And I agree that not every program is the same. You can't take exactly the way we do things and do it at every program. It's just not possible because of various differences and logistics. But I think what you can do is there are programs out there like yours, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Use intuitive for example to help you out and match you up with the program that's similar, that's been successful. You don't have to do it all on your own. So that's what I would say. Mhm. I agree. I think, I think finding people that have done it before is in and have struggled with it before and prepare you for what's going to happen and so forth. And I think it's important to remember one of the things that, you know, lung cancer is a serious disease and we're serious about taking care of our patients, but we're not serious all the time. I mean, if it's not fun, I mean, you've got to have fun doing it and you have because it's a struggle. And if you don't have fun doing it and you don't have the support of your colleagues and everybody going, then it can get to be a drag and can get to be a fight. And so that, you know, having that sense that what you're doing is good and that you can have fun together doing it. And even even a tough situation, uh you know, you're you've got people have your back, you've gotta win, man, all those things are really good and it's good to be part of that team. And so that, you know, you can, you can face your kind of failures. Uh if you can do it together and then you celebrate your successes together and both of those things are important things. You know, I think that that's a really valuable thing to try to identify and then follow through with perfect, well, I just have one last question for you guys um today. So what's next for first health of Carolina's, I feel like you're somewhat of a peak here at the U. I. Happen to know A. Is always on. I think he's worried about all these other people. That's not at all. I'm excited about all these people have a success. I'm excited that there's going to be more people out there to go out and Procter and evangelized and created all these saints and followers. Um We want them to go forth and evangelized to other people and let them know that um, you know, things are changing. Um and you don't have to be complacent and sit back and be happy with where you're at. You can make changes on behalf of your patients to do things that are fun and exciting to your point chuck. But also that that really helped patients. Um, I think what's next for first health is just onward and upward and continuing to try to advance things and making great partners and partnerships that we have with, you know, the likes of intuitive and phillips and just always looking for the next thing that we can do. Um to keep it fun and interesting being an earlier doctor is a good idea. I mean, you know it, you know, sometimes you have to be the icebreaker and that's kind of a fun thing. You don't want to do it on every single thing that you do, but on a few things it's it's good to be, you know at the front edge of the curve and that's that's exciting and it's exciting to try for for me anyway. It's exciting to try to do it in a, in an environment like ours. You know, we have a small hospital, we have a small, you know, small group of people that are doing it. And it's a challenge to try to keep up with the big guys that can do nothing but pulmonary pathology or nothing, but, you know, 10 interventional pulmonologist. But it's a challenge. But if we can do it at our place and I figure it's applicable all over. I mean, finding some guy, it's some huge institution that can show up his data is not nearly so, so great as saying that this can be grafted onto all kinds of community hospitals like ours and bring it to, you know, bring it out into the community, bring it out to our patients so that they can get great care wherever they are. So, I mean, if we can do it, maybe not mike might be special, but the rest of us, if we can do it, anybody can do it. That's what I like to say. So that that's kind of encouraging to me that there will be a time when the robots are everywhere that would be good for good for us, good for you, Good for our patients, Good for him. Perfect. Yes. But it's because of these guys passion for what they do that makes me passionate about what I do. So, it makes me want to be a part of that team. I want to be a part of something great and um, to see them just excited in the O. R whether it's a bag diagnosis or a good diagnosis, um, it makes me want to learn more, um, it makes me more aware of what's going on. So, um, I'm very privileged and honored to work with them and learn all that I have from them. As am I? I mean, I've learned so much from Dr Pritchett and now Dr Shermer and Jessica, it's been great having you guys here this weekend. Thank you again for coming all the way across the country for us. Um, intuitive, really appreciates you, but I know there's a huge fan base in the audience today, was palpable. Um, so thank you guys for your time today and extending our trip just a bit to share some of the, the wisdom from first Health and Pinehurst north Carolina and with that, any parting words or will wrap it up a visit us. Signers is a great place. So, thank you for joining our in my experience series, live from the Top Executive Summit. Have a great night, Bye. Okay,
